updated 10:02 am EDT, Tue August 26, 2014

Verizon VoLTE service includes switching between HD Voice, video calling

Verizon Wireless is gearing up to roll out its Voice over LTE (VoLTE) service over its cellular network. Its planned service will be going live over the next few weeks, with the higher-quality HD Voice calling accompanied by a simplified video calling service built directly into the phone dialer, allowing users to seamlessly switch between voice-only and video calls.

While earlier reports state it will be using the AMR-wideband standard for HD Voice calls, as well as being interoperable with similar services by competitors, Verizon's latest news release seemingly shows a more limited vision. HD Voice and Video Calling will apparently only work when "both people are in the Verizon 4G LTE coverage area and are using VoLTE-enabled smartphones from Verizon," suggesting that inter-carrier HD Voice calls won't be available at launch, but may be enabled some time in the future.

Verizon is relatively late to market with VoLTE, with AT&T and T-Mobile both offering the service to their customers. Despite being behind, Verizon is skipping the market-by-market gradual service launch, instead opting to make it available nationally to anyone using a VoLTE-equipped phone.

No, on verizon lte I can't do both - calling dumps subscribers back to the old CDMA channel and disconnects cellular data. Some phones have a second radio chip to keep cell data on during a Verizon voice call but most don't including iPhones.

I don't know if volte will change this but it would be really nice. Verizon is being too cagey with volte details - no idea what phones or mobile OS versions are required.